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Lachante Bentley
Karen Tucker
ENC 2135
26 April 2016

Research-In-Progress Report

Section 1:
My research question is How can jury misconduct be eliminated or reduced? This topic
does not really intrigue me, it more so bothers me. This topic bothers me because as an aspiring
defense attorney, the jury holds a case in its hands all the time. The constitution grants the right
of a fair trial to all citizens but with jury misconduct rising, the actual fairness of a trial is really
not there because the verdicts are not based on a fair deliberation that is conducted due to facts
from the trial only. I want this issue to go away as much as possible before I get into the criminal
justice system and the practice of law so that is why I decided to write and research about it.

Section 2: Annotated Bibliography

Aaronson, David E., and Sydney M. Patterson. "Modernizing Jury Instructions in the Age of
Social Media." Criminal Justice 27.4 (2013): 26-35. Print.

In "Modernizing Jury Instructions in the Age of Social Media" it talks about the rising issues
of allegations of jury misconduct due to social media. Aaronson and Patterson feel that these
issues do not decrease because the instructions are not clear and are not perceived correctly.
The authors proposes some suggestions that jury instructions should meet the criteria of in
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order to reduce misconduct. Some suggestions are using plain language when speaking with
social media terminology, actually give examples of what prohibited use of social media is,
explain the rationale for social media restrictions and describe the consequences of violating
these instructions will cause a juror. With these changes, jury misconduct should be
reduced.

Artigliere, Ralph, Jim Barton, and Bill Hahn. "Reining in Juror Misconduct: Practical
Suggestions for Judges and Lawyers." The Florida Bar Journal 84.1 (2010): 8-13. Web. 21
Feb. 2016.

The authors of this article basically gives suggestions that judges and lawyers can take into
consideration when dealing juror misconduct. Artigliere, Barton, and Hahn talks about why
juror misconduct is on the rise and practical reasons about why jurors engage in this
misconduct. For example, the authors explains that many people are attached to their phones
in this generation/culture to the point of not being able to live without them. When people
are on jury duty, citizens are entering a place and into a system they little about so their
phones are a place of comfort for them. Some suggestions to help deal with this issue are
taking their phones during deliberations, give clear and strong instructions and follow up
reminders about right and wrong as well as their consequences for violation. Lastly, the
authors believes that with these improvements, fairness of a trials shall increase.

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Hunter, Jill. "Jury Deliberations and the Secrecy Rule: The Tail that Wags the Dog?" Sydney
Law Review 35 (2013): 809+. Print.

This article is about the privacy of jury deliberation. Hunter values that jury privacy should
be respected and not violated but to what extent? It is assumed that juries act with
impartiality and in accordance with their instructions but is that really the honest truth in all
cases? That is the question that determines whether an accused defendant has actually
received a fair trial. The name of this article is partially titled the tail that wags the dog?
because the debate has been about the admissibility of a juror's evidence, not whether the
allegation of misconduct is a proper ground of appeal. The tail, however, wags the dog.'(2)

Jonakait, Randolph N. American Jury System. New Haven, CT, USA: Yale University Press,
2003. Web.

Jonakait wrote this book to speak upon the overall ins and outs of the jury system in
America. The entire book touches on all of the aspects about the jury before, during and
after a trial. Chapters of the book discuses different topics about the jury system such as an
overview of it, juries and community values, jury size and jury performance, unanimity and
hung juries and etc. It was written for the purpose of touching bases on about everything
needed to know about the jury system.

Kiernan, Michael K., and Samuel E. Cooley. "Juror Misconduct in the Age of Social
Networking[Dagger]." FDCC Quarterly 62.2 (2012): 179-93. Print.

This article is about the advances and the history of social media/smart phones that dates
back to the first most popular form of social media called Myspace. They explain that

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jurors take part in jury misconduct when they are posting on their profiles during trial and
containing background information about a case outside of the information presented by the
lawyers during the trial. The article also speaks about the brief history of jury misconduct in
the U.S and how courts actually react to this misconduct.

MacKenzie, Robert P., and C. C. Bromberg. "Jury Misconduct: What Happens Behind Closed
Doors." Alabama Law Review 62.3 (2011): 623-43. Print.

Alabama law review is about jurors not being able to testify to invalidate their own verdict
after it was given unless there is prejudicial information that has been brought to them or if
there has been improper outside influences brought upon them before the verdict or during
jury deliberations. Simply, the Alabama courts decided on whether juror experiments, field
trips, and other unauthorized research are good enough grounds to be granted a new trial.
When coming to a conclusion, it was decided that jurors were not able to testify to
invalidate their own verdict unless the conduct was extremely prejudicial and mandated a
new trial.

Morrison, CM. "Jury 2.0." The Hastings law journal 62.6 (07): 1579; 1579,1632; 1632. Print.

In the Hastings law journal, Morrison focuses on many things and points throughout this
journal. The part that I am taking research from is entitled War and peace in jury room:
how capital juries reach unanimity. In this section it takes a closer look inside of the jury
room and the process that capital jury members go through in order to come to a unanimous
decision about a capital punishment verdict. The evidence used for this section comes from
data collected during the capital jury project.

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Saltzburg, Stephen A. "Dealing with Juror Misconduct." Criminal Justice 25.1 (2010): 20-2.
Print.

"Dealing with Juror Misconduct." is about a case that draws an illustrative picture of an
example of juror misconduct and how to deal with it. The case in the article is United States
v. Bristopl-Martir. Within this case it demonstrates how jurors access to the internet can
taint a trial and how a judge should respond to misconduct

Taylor, Nick. "Judicial Management of Juror Impropriety." Journal of criminal law (Hertford)
78.1 (02): 43; 43,64; 64. Print.

Taylor is an author that speaks about the criticism of the ability of jurors being able to carry
out their task as jurors in "Judicial Management of Juror Impropriety." Taylor talks about
whether or not jury trial can survive its current form due to jury misconduct and jurors not
completely understanding their roles. Because of jury misconduct and impropriety, this
article recognizes that juries are not a normative part of a fair trial but juries are kept around
because they hold value when it comes to enhancing public confidence. If public support is
lost, then the value of the jury might be lost as well. Taylor then goes on to approach the
different ways of being able to better prepare the jurors for court/trial.

"What Is Jury Misconduct?" Rottenstein Law Group. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.

On this website, it explains and defines the term jury misconduct and other related terms
that correlates with jury misconduct. This article also simply explains how jury misconduct
occurs, its clichs and the way to win a motion for a new trial due to juror misconduct.

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Section 3:

Areas of my research that are largely to almost complete is actually the part of my paper
that explains what jury misconduct is. Jury misconduct is basically researching and looking
up outside information about the case that a juror sits on trial for. Jury misconduct is also
doing anything that violates the instructions that the judge gives to the jury members before
trial such as posting about the case on social media or talking about the case outside of the
trial. The areas that contain gaps that need to be filled in would be areas that speak about
possible solutions for jury misconduct and what exactly drives jurors to go against jury
instructions. Filling these gaps is extremely important because these solutions and findings
will help bring my paper to a close. Knowing why jurors condone in jury misconduct will
help to come up with solutions.